Which is fair BUT Sonic has the most popularity in the EU, barely beating out the US IIRC. JP is a far 3rd in terms of Sonic's popularity.
Sonic sells the best in the US as well.
So it's like
What the **** Sega. Cater to your largest fanbase when it comes to Sonic, aka the West.
hold the ****ing phone
let me stop you right here
Sonic is NOT just about going fast.
Sonic is about speed gain through skillful platforming; however speed is not the primary focus. It's clever and fluid level design that is designed around pinball physics.
These are the reasons why S1 - S3K is so critically acclaimed and S3K is lauded as the best sonic game ever by SOOO many.
Shadow the Hedgehog is the result of Sega listening to the fan's demands. The fans demanded Shadow because Shadow embodied what was cool in that time period. Edginess.
If Sonic was made to embody 90s cool, then Shadow was made to embody 2000's cool. So along with the edginess, they grabbed whatever else they considered edgy and cool and gave it Shadow. Guns, Motocycles, A convoluted Story. Everything.
The issue with Unleashed/Generations and to a lesser degree, Colors; is that Modern Sonic/Day Time Sonic's stages all boil down to muscle memory more than reaction and Skillful platforming. Especially if you're speed running.
You can't really boost to win in Unleashed/Generations without prior knowledge to the level map else get hit a lot, especially in lower levels. Once you get used it, then like I said muscle memory does the job for you and you dont really have to pay much attention to where you're going.
Colors is not as bad because there is a greater emphasis on platforming and earning speed through platforming, which is why I enjoy it more the Generations. Generations itself does have a greater emphasis on skillful platforming than Unleashed though, but not as much as colors. The minichallenges kinda help alleviate it but they're all gimmicky.
(I do think the best challenge stages are the action master ones though)
It's all fun, but it's not really what made Sonic ...Sonic imo. But of course, because of all the babies that started with Adventure, it's just fine for them lol.
Sonic Unleashed would have been a better game if the scratched the werehog, replaced him with Knuckles, killed the stretchy arms mechanic, changed the night time stages to suit Knuckles' abilities, and labled it Sonic and Knuckles 2.
Empyrean , Vwins won Melee
